Band Saw Wheel Shaft Vendor

[tomboysawyer]

Seems there's always something with equipment...

The idle wheel shaft on my bandsaw mill has a blown bearing which wore out the shaft.

Anyone know which of the FF sponsors supply parts like this? If not, any non-FF sponsors sell bandsaw parts.

I have Browning wheels. Is there a mill that usually used Browning wheels?

[WH_Conley]

Wood-Mizer uses a lot of Browning parts, the manual gives browning part numbers anyway. I would try them first. Not sure about the other manufactures.

[Modat22]

Is it a special shaft? You may be able to buy a piece of shaft from McMastercar that will work.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Cooks sells shaft and bearing assemblies- don't know if it will fit your mill.

[Modat22]

another option you may want to look into is takeing the shaft to a machinist and let them build up the metal and turn it back down to size on the lathe.

[tomboysawyer]

Well, I tried WM, but without an exact serial number they say they put too many different size spindles in that year.

Seems kinda strange to me. I need shaft and both bearings. You'd think since they didn't change the wheels they wouldn't have changed the housing either and I could put a full set of something in there.

And, since I can't look at the parts lists myself, I feel like I'm at an old-timee parts store that won't let me help them help me. Sigh.

Off to my machine shop. Can't wait to see the bill...

[flip]

www.linnlumber.com

[Russ]

It might have a standard size keyed shaft, mine did.  I got a replacement at E B Atmus 65 Main St. Springfiled Ma. 413-736-4551, Just had a machine shop cut to the right length. Bought american made pillow block bearing there to.

[tcsmpsi]

Hey...

How's the search/repair for you shaft/bearings going? 

[tomboysawyer]

Hey...

How's the search/repair for you shaft/bearings going? 

Took it to my local machine shop. They started with larger stock and machined it down. Put two new bearings on the shaft for me (only really needed one). Ran just shy of $200. Seemed a bit pricey, but I didn't have time for more shopping or any running around. Oh well.

[Tom]

Yeah, Machinest can be on the expensive side.  I think yours was.

I was actually thinking it would be half of that. 

Well, you got it made, and the good thing is that you know you can beat any problem. 

I'm curious to hear how it works. 

Orville

[tomboysawyer]

Yeah, Machinest can be on the expensive side.  I think yours was.

I was actually thinking it would be half of that. 

They seem to always run about twice what it should be. Not suprising. That's why I was posting here. I think I gave in and took it there because I had already found these other links, but nothing had particularly good specs. If WM says they had different sized stuff, how was I to know if any of those other ones would work?

[Dan_Shade]

machinists are typically expensive because you have to know how to use the machinery, and not screw the parts up, and the machinery is crazy expensive to operate a machine shop.

to find a cheap machinist, you gotta find a guy that is self trained, and buys worn out shop equipment!

[Tom]

I don't mind a machinist being expensive, I mind being gouged.  In a large urban area such as I'm in I see both sides of it.   Usually the ones that gouge are the "what the market will bear" types who judge the cost of the job by how critical it is to you, or whether you are dressed like you haven't a clue.

There are setup charges and material charges and hourly charges that can run a bill up.  There are also charges added to pay the man that owns the shop for allowing his machinist to do the job.  The machinist doesn't see all of that money.

Still, Some of the best machinist we have in the area pride themselves in getting folks out of a jam.  They charge fairly and the same for a doctor as they do for a farmer.

We have some of the same types in the sawmill industry who gain a reputation of taking advantage of situations.

Until he died, one of the best machinest around here would sometimes have to be threatened to take money for patch.  He looked upon his customers as his family and he had a big family.

[WH_Conley]

I went to have a shaft made a while back and the two pillowblocks were $52.00 each, at a supply house not te machine shop. Time you take this into consideration maybe the machine shop was not too high, I guess that would depend on what he had to do. If it was a simple job might be kind of high, if it was very complicated might not be a bad price.

[tomboysawyer]

No pillow blocks. I have pillow blocks on the drive wheel and they are fine.

This was on the idler wheel with the tensioner system on it. The wheel-side bearing had given out and wore a "nice" groove in the shaft.

The two bearings should have run about $10.

I don't mind paying my machine shop to just get the job done some times. The thing is, I told them, "this is a 1" shaft and it looks like they just put a sleeve on this in one spot as a stopper - weld that on, machine the edges."

Instead, they took much larger stock, machined it down to 1" on either side of the stopper part and put on threads. I got a good deal for what they did, the coulda just done it cheaper. I paid extra for stock and extra for time.

But they have done some "outta-jam" jobs for me - not pretty, not warranteed. But when the fuel filter for my 3-83 was being held onto the Detroit block by some baling wire, they tig welded the casting. Looks ugly, but it works just fine.

Or the time they welded some washers on my Moto Guzzi exhaust because the bracket broke and them Italian parts are expensive and require long waits - that was good.

So, win some lose some. I think that's how it is. I charge by the hour for my work. Some times people don't appreciate what I do, some times they think they got a steal. Just how it is.